Passion Reduces Stress; or Why the Hero Can Think About That When in Serious Danger

Have you ever wondered why your hero or heroine is so calm in the face of danger? Where you might be running around in a circle flapping your hands and shrieking, our characters are calmly assessing the situation and figuring out just how to plunge the knife into the villain’s ribcage.

It’s because of sex.

One study finds that “sexual activity has been shown to reduce anxiety in rodents and humans.” One hopes the rodents and the humans weren’t...okay, never mind, that’s too gross. Anyway, “sexually active rats displayed fewer anxious behaviors compared with rats that hadn’t been allowed to have sex (the study also found that sex protected the rats’ brains from the negative effects of stress hormones).”